zorx

Hi I wish to buy a 944 in england this year and have a small budget and wondered what type of mileage limit I should put on the engine before alarms bells go off.

John Boggiano

Hi, Zorx.

I'll move this to the 944 forum for you.
THIS forum is for help with Rennlist itself.

icat

As old as these cars are, the mileage really doesn't make much difference. For instance, engines in low mileage cars will require replacement of belts and rollers almost as often as hig mileage cars. Age is the determining factor - not mileage. Your best bet in determning a "good car" is to look at the mantenance records that come with the car. If there are no records - then be very careful. If you elect to buy a car without records - then have belts, rollers, and waterpump replaced AS SOON AS YOU BUY IT! I might go so far as to suggest you have it towed to the shop that will do the work. There are numerous examples of "new" owners whose cars toss the belts within the first month of ownership - which will toast the engine and really ruin your day. Belts need to be replaced - in my opinion - every 30,000 miles (sorry - too early to do a km conversion in my head - I know it's about 62 miles per 100 km but it's new years morning if you know what I mean ). And if you're doing belts, do the rollers too. If there isn't a record of a waterpump, then you'll need one of those as well. Reason is, everything I have mentioned needs to be removed to do a waterpump. While the parts are not cheap - the labour is very expensive. Do it once and you'll have several trouble free miles ahead of you. There are many examples of 200,000 mile engines in these cars that are still going strong. But you can bet your last dollar that these were well maintained cars with frequent belt changes.
Have fun. The search for a good car is half the battle.

livewirevoodoo

Exactly what icat said...

I bought my '87 with 77k on it.. Looking at the carfax report, I thought "wow, in the past 8 years, this car has only been driven 6 thousand miles." I was working under the assumption that lower mileage was the way to go. Knowing what I know now, I would have opted for something with 100, even 120k on it, assuming it was driven atleast monthly or so. Seals dry up, belts and hoses age.. Anything rubber will deteriorate over time as well... It was a stressful few first months for me as a new owner, both on peace of mind and my wallet.

icat

I bought my 86 951 8 years ago. At that time it had 68,000 miles. Today it has about 83,000 miles - thats less than 2,000 miles a year. I was lucky and bought a car with full records showing a belt change at 60,000 miles - but I still changed the belts and rollers about two years ago. I had not driven the car for about a year and a half and felt it was time to do a complete service before I returned her to the road. The scary part was that one of the rollers had seized - the smart part was that I had it towed to the shop for the belt replacement. If I'd have driven it the belt would likely have let go.

BigRed

I had a belt take a hiatus within the first 2 weeks...luckily it was the Alternator/AC belt, so nothing fried. Whew...